Anth 4250/5250 - Week 2.1 - Capitalism: Making Money with Money

How does Keith Hart describe the dynamics of money, markets, and political power in the modern era?

Book Launch - Money at the Margins - Reflections

What were some take away points from the book launch of Money at the Margins?

Week 13.1 & 13.2 Liar's Poker

Discuss this week's reading Liar's Poker. What do we learn about Wall street culture through this book?

Week 12.1 & 12.2 Bitcoin Miners and Boom Towns

[Politico article] What aspects of the bitcoin boom are covered in this article? In what ways do the bitcoin mining towns resemble boom towns in other examples of rushes to riches?
[NY Times article] Discuss the following quote from this article: "The paradox about Bitcoin is that it may well turn out to be a genuinely revolutionary breakthrough and at the same time a colossal failure as a currency." What, according to this article, might be the effects of Bitcoin on economic and other realms?

Week 11.2 D'avella - Ecologies of Investment

How do different materialities and ecologies play/ed a role in Argentina's economic crisis discussed in this article?

Week 11.1 Bruce Grant - The Edifice Complex

This week's readings focus on speculative construction projects in different cities in the world. Bruce Grant's article focusses on a building boom in Baku, Azerbaijan. What is the source of cash for this building boom? What are the various motives behind this boom--by private corporations but also by the government? How does the socialist experience of construction influence contemporary commentaries and imaginaries around these constructions by the residents?

10.1 & 10.2 Musaraj & Woodworth/Ulfstjrne & McGregor - Social Networks and Speculative Finance

All readings of this week discuss how social networks -- of family, kin, migrants -- play a role in fueling speculative finance or are transformed/shaped by speculative finance or bubbles. Taking one of the articles, discuss how in this specific case are social relations important in the circulation, expansion and/or collapse of the respective speculative bubble?